The prior art is already aware of various conveyor systems which handle items for supporting and collecting the items in rows thereof and for subsequently stacking the rows. Examples of prior art are found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,247,981 and 3,323,425 and 3,373,664, all which show conveyor arrangements for handling items from an stream relationship and placing them into a row. U.S. Pat. No. 3,323,425 shows an arrangement for conveying a stream of items in one direction and then transferring them to another direction at right angles to the first direction, but the items are not finally placed in a row for collection of the rows of items, as they are in the present invention. Further, the aforesaid patents only show two sets of conveyors which simply and fundamentally transfer items from one conveyor of the other, such as by having a first conveyor which moves vertically to a lowered position for transferring its items to the second conveyor at the lower position. However, these patents do not show conveyors with interleaved or interspersed conveyor members which initially support items in one direction of movement and collect the items of thereon and then subsequently support and move the items in another direction, such as in the present invention, U.S. Pat. No. 4,019,639 shows an arrangement of two conveyors which move items in right angle directions, but the conveyors do not actually function to collect a row of items therebetween such that the items first move in a stream on the first conveyor and are collected in a row thereon and are then transferred to a second conveyor and the row of items then being moved under the support of the second conveyor. However, the last-mentioned U.S. patent does show an arrangement of interleaved conveyor members whereby a first conveyor supports the items at one elevation and is then lowered to where the items are supported on the second conveyor at the lower elevation. However, as mentioned, that patent does not show the arrangement of a conveyor system having three actual conveyors with one being an incoming conveyor and the second being a conveyor movable up and down and the third being a conveyor which moves the collected row off to one side and with an item stop member operable between the incoming conveyor and the uprightly movable conveyor and with the operation of the stop being synchronized with the up-and-down movement of the conveyor, all for the purpose of collecting items in a row.
Accordingly, it is a primary object of this invention to improve upon the prior art, as mentioned in the aforesaid. More specifically, it is an object to provide a conveyor system wherein items can be moved in a separated and single form to a up-and-down movable conveyor wherein the items are collected in abutment in a row and then the conveyor can be lowered so that the items can be transferred to still another conveyor for moving the row off to one side for accumulation for like purposes.
Still further, it is an object of this invention to accomplish the aforementioned with a conveyor system which is fully automated and which has the operable elements of the up-and-down movement of the conveyor and the operation of the item stop and the powering of the conveyors themselves all synchronized and automated and integrated into one unit or system.
Still further, the present invention provides a conveyor system wherein the items can be collected in a row on one conveyor which permits the items to move under the force of gravity and therefore come into complete row alignment and contact without creating undue force or using unnecessary power for movement of the items to their row relationship. Further, the aforesaid is accomplished in a system which is adaptable to accomodate an item counter so that when the desired number of items are collected in a row then the following items will be interrupted while the row is being offset to one side for accumulation of the stacks of rows of the items.
Other objects and advantages will become apparent upon reading the following description in light of the accompanying drawings.